US Supreme Court’s move to hear Trump’s immunity claim gives him gift of delay

US Supreme Court’s move to hear Trump’s immunity claim gives him gift of delay
A view of the US Supreme Court building in Washington, DC. (REUTERS)
Short Url
Updated 01 March 2024
Follow

US Supreme Court’s move to hear Trump’s immunity claim gives him gift of delay

US Supreme Court’s move to hear Trump’s immunity claim gives him gift of delay
  • Trump’s lawyers have argued that he should be shielded from prosecution for his effort to reverse President Joe Biden’s election victory over him because he was president when he took those actions
  • Some legal experts criticized the Supreme Court, whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three Trump appointees, for undue delay

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court appears likely to reject Donald Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution for trying to undo his 2020 election loss, according to legal experts, but its decision to spend months on the matter could aid his quest to regain the presidency by further delaying a monumental criminal trial.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that he should be shielded from prosecution for his effort to reverse President Joe Biden’s election victory over him because he was president when he took those actions, a sweeping assertion of immunity firmly rejected by lower courts.
But the Supreme Court’s decision not to schedule its arguments on the issue until late April reduces the chances that a trial on election subversion charges brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith could be finished before the Nov. 5 US election. Trump is cruising toward the Republican nomination to challenge Biden, a Democrat.
Some legal experts criticized the Supreme Court, whose 6-3 conservative majority includes three Trump appointees, for undue delay.
“They could have set a more aggressive briefing and argument schedule, as Smith requested,” University of Michigan law professor Leah Litman said. “The immunity claims are also outlandish. They could have been rejected on the papers (legal briefs) if they wanted to be the one to decide it.”
“They’ll reject his immunity bid,” Litman added, but forecast that the soonest a decision would come is May.
Legal experts said the justices would need to rule by about June 1 to leave enough time for Trump’s trial on the charges to wrap up before Election Day.
Smith, seeking to avoid trial delays, had asked the justices on Dec. 11 to launch a fast-track review of the immunity claim. Trump asked the justices to not expedite the review, and on Dec. 22 they did what he requested, opting to let the matter play out in a lower court rather than resolving it right away.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Feb. 6 upheld US District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s Dec. 1 ruling rejecting the immunity claim. Trump on Feb. 12 asked the Supreme Court to freeze the D.C. Circuit ruling. On Feb. 14, Smith asked the justices to reject Trump’s bid to further delay the matter. It took the court two more weeks before it announced it would hear arguments in the matter, which it scheduled for the week of April 22.
The trial had been scheduled to start on March 4 before the delays over the immunity issue. Now no trial date is set.

Four prosecutions
The case is one of four criminal prosecutions Trump faces. A March 25 trial date has been set on charges in state court in New York involving hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. It is unclear when the other criminal cases will go to trial.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in all four cases, seeking to portray them as politically motivated.
“I should not have to go through any fake prosecutions before the election,” Trump wrote on social media on Feb. 19.
A criminal conviction could harm Trump’s election chances. In Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls, a quarter of Republicans and half of independents said they would not vote for Trump if a jury convicted him of a felony.
If he is elected and becomes president again next January, he could order an end to this case and a second brought by Smith concerning Trump’s handling of classified documents — or seek to pardon himself for any federal convictions.
Republican strategist Ford O’Connell, who worked with Trump during the 2020 campaign, said of the delays in the trial timeline as the Supreme Court resolves the immunity matter: “It’s hard to overstate what a victory this is politically for the Trump legal team and for Donald Trump.”
“This is a great benefit to Trump in terms of the timeline of these cases, and how they may interact with the election, particularly in the fall,” O’Connell said.

Slowing things down
University of Michigan law professor Barbara McQuade, a former senior federal prosecutor appointed by President Barack Obama, said that a time frame for the election subversion trial “is manageable as long as the Supreme Court acts promptly, and remains mindful of the public’s right to a speedy trial.”
McQuade added that “it seems likely that the court will uphold the D.C. Circuit ruling against Trump.”
“I think that Trump’s arguments are pretty thin,” added Georgetown University law professor Erica Hashimoto.
Chutkan has promised to give Trump about 90 days to prepare for trial once the case returns to her courtroom, with a trial expected to last six to eight weeks. For a verdict to come before the election, the trial would need to start by around Sept. 1, McQuade said.
UCLA School of Law elections expert Richard Hasen said that if the Supreme Court’s ruling comes in late June, “it is not at all clear that there could be a trial before the election.”
“I’m also skeptical the judge would make Trump go to trial if he’s the general election candidate on the Republican side,” Hasen added.
Hasen forecast that the Supreme Court “is likely to reject Trump’s immunity argument on the merits.”
Delaying the trial gives Trump more time to rally supporters around his claim that the charges were politically motivated, an assertion that Reuters/Ipsos polls show is broadly held by Republican voters.
Some experts cite Trump’s long-established record of making strategic use of court delays for legal and political advantage.
Hasen noted that “given the weakness of Trump’s position, it’s reasonable to ask whether this is simply an attempt, now more likely to be successful, to run out the clock.”

 


Russia planned ‘acts of terrorism’ in the air, Polish PM says

Updated 2 sec ago
Follow

Russia planned ‘acts of terrorism’ in the air, Polish PM says

Russia planned ‘acts of terrorism’ in the air, Polish PM says
The explosions occurred in depots in Britain, Germany and Poland in July
Russia has denied involvement in the incidents and Tusk did not mention them specifically

WARSAW: Russia planned ‘acts of terrorism’ in the air against Poland and other countries, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Warsaw.
Security officials have said that parcels that exploded at logistics depots in Europe were part of a test run for a Russian plot to trigger explosions on cargo flights to the United States. The explosions occurred in depots in Britain, Germany and Poland in July. Russia has denied involvement in the incidents and Tusk did not mention them specifically.
“The latest information can confirm the validity of fears that Russia was planning acts of terrorism in the air not only against Poland,” Tusk told a news conference. He did not say what acts he was referring to or elaborate on the contents of the information.
Moscow has regularly denied any involvement in the courier depot explosions, as well as break-ins, arson and attacks on individuals which Western officials say were carried out by operatives paid by Russia. The Russian embassy in Warsaw has not immediately replied to an emailed request for comment on Tusk’s statement.

US must not become complacent to a growing terrorism threat, a Counterterrorism Center official says

US must not become complacent to a growing terrorism threat, a Counterterrorism Center official says
Updated 38 min 48 sec ago
Follow

US must not become complacent to a growing terrorism threat, a Counterterrorism Center official says

US must not become complacent to a growing terrorism threat, a Counterterrorism Center official says
  • “We are in a period where we are facing an elevated threat environment,” Holmgren said
  • He also points to mass migration from the Russia-Ukraine war that has sent central Asians to countries including Turkiye, Syria, Iraq and even the US

UNITED STATES: Brett Holmgren got woken up early on New Year’s Day by alerts that a driver had plowed into a crowd of revellers in New Orleans.
The rampage, which killed 14 people, was the deadliest attack on US soil in years and was inspired by the Daesh group.
The National Counterterrorism Center, which Holmgren leads, sprang into action to help the FBI run down information on the culprit from Texas and his plot.
It was a rare recent example of a mass attack motivated by religious extremism to hit the US homeland. But it didn’t occur in a vacuum, coming at a time when a terror threat that has waxed and waned in the two decades since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is decidedly on the rise around the world.
“We are in a period where we are facing an elevated threat environment,” Holmgren said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We faced that last year. We’re going to face it again in 2025.”
The NCTC emerged in the aftermath of 9/11 as a centralized US government hub to collect and analyze data and intelligence on the international terrorism threat, providing information to the White House and other agencies to shape policy decisions and protect against attacks.
A former counterterrorism analyst and assistant secretary of state, Holmgren was named its acting director last July and intends to step aside at the conclusion of the Biden administration.
At that point, new leadership under President-elect Donald Trump will grapple with managing some of the global hot spots like Syria that have vexed officials in recent months and that the NCTC has been tracking.
Holmgren cites multiple factors for why the threat is higher than before, including passions arising from the Israel-Hamas war — a conflict that he says has been a driving factor in some 45 attacks worldwide since October 2023. He also points to mass migration from the Russia-Ukraine war that has sent central Asians, some with ties to the Daesh group, to countries including Turkiye, Syria, Iraq and even the US
Around the world, officials are monitoring tensions in Africa, which Holmgren called potentially the greatest long-term threat to US security given that the Daesh group has a large footprint on the continent and is investing resources there.
He says the “most potent overseas threat facing the United States” right now is the group’s Afghanistan-based affiliate, known as Daesh-Khorasan, whose attacks include a March 2024 massacre at a Moscow theater and the August 2021 bombing that killed 13 US service members and about 170 Afghans in the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
One ongoing spot of concern is Syria, where an insurgent group named Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, led a lightning offensive last month that toppled the government of President Bashar Assad.
HTS is a Sunni Islamist group that formerly had ties with Al-Qaeda, although its leader has preached religious coexistence since taking over in Damascus. The group has not plotted against US interests in recent years and has been “the most effective counterterrorism partner on the ground,” Holmgren said.
HTS has been designated by the State Department as a foreign terror organization, a label that carries severe sanctions.
Asked whether that designation would remain, Holmgren said that was a policy decision, though he noted: “They want to be perceived as being on the right side of the international community at this time when it comes to (counterterrorism). But we will continue to evaluate not just their words but also the actions that they’re undertaking.”
In an indication of Syria’s continued instability, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told The Associated Press last week that the US needs to keep troops there to prevent the Daesh group from reconstituting, and intelligence officials in Syria’s new de facto government already have thwarted a plan by Daesh to set off a bomb at a Shiite shrine in a Damascus suburb.
US officials, meanwhile, remain concerned about the possibility of Daesh gaining strength by taking over weapons left behind by Assad’s government or through a mass release of fighters who are now imprisoned.
“A large-scale prisoner release in Syria could provide a real boost in the arm for IS at a time where they have been under significant pressure,” Holmgren said.
The counterterrorism center’s focus is on international terrorism, which includes cases in the US like the New Orleans rampage in which the attacker was inspired by a group from abroad. The culprit, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, pledged his allegiance to Daesh in videos he recorded just before he drove his speeding pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street early on Jan. 1.
As of now, Holmgren said, there’s no evidence that Jabbar was communicating with any Daesh operatives overseas or guided by anyone, but given that he was a lone actor who was radicalized, “this symbolizes exactly the type of attack that we’ve warned about for some time.”
“And I think it illustrates that while we have been quite effective as a government and across administrations at disrupting plotting overseas and going after terrorist leaders, we have a lot more work to do when it comes to countering violent extremism at home, countering violent extremist propaganda abroad,” he added.
“That is ultimately what is going to be needed to prevent more attacks like the one in New Orleans,” Holmgren said.
By the same token, through vast intelligence collection, hardened defenses and overseas counterterrorism operations, the US has made the risk of another large-scale attack like Sept. 11 lower than it’s ever been.
“But if we get complacent as a country,” he warned, “it will come back to bite us.”


South Korean investigators arrest President Yoon in insurrection probe

South Korean investigators arrest President Yoon in insurrection probe
Updated 33 min 48 sec ago
Follow

South Korean investigators arrest President Yoon in insurrection probe

South Korean investigators arrest President Yoon in insurrection probe
  • Yoon is the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested
  • His last month’s short-lived martial law order plunged the country into turmoil

SEOUL: South Korean authorities arrested President Yoon Suk-yeol on Wednesday over accusations of insurrection following his briefly imposed martial law.
The arrest ended a standoff between investigators and Yoon’s presidential security team, which had prevented his detention earlier this month.
The Corruption Investigation Office announced it had “executed an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk-yeol today at 10:33 am,” after which he was seen stepping out of the car wearing a white shirt and suit as he slipped through the CIO’s back entrance for high-ranking officials.
“I decided to answer to the CIO’s investigations in order to prevent unsavory bloodshed,” Yoon said in a pre-recorded video statement released by his lawyers following the arrest.
“That does not mean I recognize the CIO’s investigation as legitimate.”
The CIO is leading a joint probe — together with military investigators and police — to probe allegations against Yoon.
He is charged with insurrection and will be held at the Seoul Detention Center. Authorities now have 48 hours to question the president and seek a warrant to detain him for up to 20 days.
The probe coincides with Yoon’s impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court. The trial began on Tuesday but hearings were adjourned minutes after it started due to Yoon’s absence.
The trial follows the National Assembly’s vote on Dec. 14 to impeach Yoon over the imposition of martial law on Dec. 3 — a move that lawmakers swiftly overturned hours after it was announced.
Yoon is the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested.
The CIO’s legitimacy in investigating Yoon has come under scrutiny as the president and his lawyers argue that it lacks the legal authority to investigate insurrection charges.
“The CIO does not have the right to investigate insurrection charges ... we strongly urge them to follow due legal processes,” Yoon’s lawyer and friend of 40-years, Seok Dong-hyun, said in a press conference after the president was taken into custody.
But Prof. Hong Young-ki from the Korea University School of Law told Arab News it was a matter of interpreting the law, “but the court has already confirmed the legitimacy” by approving the arrest warrant.
“The court already recognized the CIO’s jurisdiction when it issued the arrest warrant. Then who can go against the court and say that the CIO is illegitimate? How can a third party do it?” he said.
“The president wants to say that, but how can someone who was merely a prosecutor say his interpretation is more correct than that of the court? I don’t really think his argument has that much persuasive power.”
Claiming that the CIO’s investigation was illegitimate, Yoon was trying to evade arrest also during the eventually successful second attempt, which started at 4:10 a.m., with 3,000 officers surrounding his hillside house.
Buses and barbed wire were set up on the road leading to Yoon’s residence to prevent entry, while lawmakers from the president’s ruling People’s Power Party gathered at the site, tried to block the authorities, and shouted that “South Korea’s rule of law has collapsed” and that the “constitution has been destroyed.”
The opposition Democratic Party welcomed the arrest.
“A bit late, but it shows that South Korea’s governmental authority and justice is still alive,” floor leader Park Chan-dae said in a briefing.
“(Yoon’s arrest) is the first step in restoring liberal democracy and realizing the rule of law.”


South Korean investigators question President Yoon in insurrection probe

South Korean investigators question President Yoon in insurrection probe
Updated 41 min 49 sec ago
Follow

South Korean investigators question President Yoon in insurrection probe

South Korean investigators question President Yoon in insurrection probe
  • Yoon is the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested
  • His last month’s short-lived martial law order plunged the country into turmoil

Seoul: South Korean investigators began questioning President Yoon Suk-yeol on Wednesday after arresting him over accusations of insurrection following his briefly imposed martial law.

The arrest ended a standoff between investigators and Yoon’s presidential security team, which had prevented his detention earlier this month.

The Corruption Investigation Office announced it had “executed an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk-yeol today at 10:33 am,” after which he was seen stepping out of the car wearing a white shirt and suit as he slipped through the CIO’s back entrance for high-ranking officials.

“I decided to answer to the CIO’s investigations in order to prevent unsavory bloodshed,” Yoon said in a pre-recorded video statement released by his lawyers following the arrest.

“That does not mean I recognize the CIO’s investigation as legitimate.”

The CIO is leading a joint probe — together with military investigators and police — to probe allegations against Yoon.

He is charged with insurrection and will be held at the Seoul Detention Center. Authorities now have 48 hours to question the president and seek a warrant to detain him for up to 20 days.

The probe coincides with Yoon’s impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court. The trial began on Tuesday, but hearings were adjourned minutes after it started due to Yoon’s absence.

The trial follows the National Assembly’s vote on Dec. 14 to impeach Yoon over the imposition of martial law on Dec. 3 — a move that lawmakers swiftly overturned hours after it was announced.

Yoon is the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested.

The CIO’s legitimacy in investigating Yoon has come under scrutiny as the president and his lawyers argue that it lacks the legal authority to investigate insurrection charges.

“The CIO does not have the right to investigate insurrection charges ... We strongly urge them to follow due legal processes,” Yoon’s lawyer and friend of 40 years, Seok Dong-hyun, said in a press conference after the president was taken into custody.

Prof. Hong Young-ki from the Korea University School of Law told Arab News it was a matter of interpreting the law, “but the court has already confirmed the legitimacy” by approving the arrest warrant.

“The court already recognized the CIO’s jurisdiction when it issued the arrest warrant. Then who can go against the court and say that the CIO is illegitimate? How can a third party do it?” he said.

“The president wants to say that, but how can someone who was merely a prosecutor say his interpretation is more correct than that of the court? I don’t really think his argument has that much persuasive power.”

Claiming that the CIO’s investigation was illegitimate, Yoon tried to evade arrest also during the eventually successful second attempt, which started at 4:10 a.m., with 3,000 officers surrounding his hillside house.

Buses and barbed wire were set up on the road leading to Yoon’s residence to prevent entry, while lawmakers from the president’s ruling People’s Power Party gathered at the site, tried to block the authorities, and shouted that “South Korea’s rule of law has collapsed” and that the “constitution has been destroyed.”

The opposition Democratic Party welcomed the arrest.

“A bit late, but it shows that South Korea’s governmental authority and justice is still alive,” floor leader Park Chan-dae said in a briefing.

“(Yoon’s arrest) is the first step in restoring liberal democracy and realizing the rule of law.”


Dense fog over Indian capital delays flights, trains

Dense fog over Indian capital delays flights, trains
Updated 15 January 2025
Follow

Dense fog over Indian capital delays flights, trains

Dense fog over Indian capital delays flights, trains
  • Visibility at Delhi’s main airport was between zero to 100 meters, over 40 trains across northern India delayed 
  • Delhi was ranked as the world’s most polluted city in live rankings by Swiss group IQAir on Wednesday

Dense fog and cold weather delayed train and flight departures in several parts of northern India, including its capital New Delhi, on Wednesday.
India’s weather office issued an orange alert for Delhi, the second highest warning level, forecasting dense to very dense fog in many areas.
Visibility at Delhi’s main airport was between zero to 100 meters (328.08 ft), the weather office said, and more than 40 trains across northern India were delayed because of fog, local media reported.
Some aircraft departures from Delhi were delayed, airport authorities said on social media platform X, warning that flights lacking the CAT III navigation system that enables landing despite low visibility would face difficulties. Delhi’s main airport handles about 1,400 flights every day.
“Low visibility and fog over Delhi may lead to some delays,” the country’s largest airline IndiGo said in a social media post.
Local media showed images of vehicles crawling along highways through the fog, and people huddled indoors as the temperature dipped to 7 degrees Celsius (44.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Delhi was ranked as the world’s most polluted city in live rankings by Swiss group IQAir on Wednesday, with a reading of 254, ranked as “very unhealthy.”
The Indian capital has been battling poor air quality and smog since the beginning of winter.